Hot Points
by starlite-decay
Summary: "Wait a second." Tony bristled. "Did that coach just say Rogers? Steve Rogers? Wasn't that kid a literal flagpole last year? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" Pepper rubbed at her temples as Tony went on to rant about how people can't 'gain that many hot points' over one Summer break. It was going to be a long night. High School AU. Tony-Centric.


**Hot Points**

**Chapter 1**

A cautious set of eyes peeked around a corner of a long hallway inside Valhalla High School. The coast seemed clear. A teenage boy rounded the corner, gripping the strap of his backpack in anxiety. He was short, no more than five-foot-six, and very lean. His messy brown hair was cut short, but stuck up with a cowlick. The boy's jawline was strong, in what most would consider a handsome masculine design, and his dark eyes burned bright with an intelligence far beyond his age, although they were semi-hidden by thick framed black glasses. As he pressed forward, nearly power walking, his eyes scanned every corner of the hall, as if he were expecting a demon to burst forth from the shadows and take him to an early demise.

"Stark."

The teenager froze, his face twisted into a grimace that easily read: 'shit.' Tony Stark composed himself, before turning around _very_ slowly to face the other teenage boy. He was standing uncomfortably straight, a book of some sort in one of his hands. The boy's light brown hair was combed in a perfect manner that seemed just plain _anal_ to Tony.

_ Hall Monitor Coulson. The Principal's little pet, _Tony thought to himself. Coulson stiffened and brought his fist up to cover his mouth while he cleared his throat. "Just because I am actually _responsible_, unlike _some_ people, does not make me his _pet_." His words were filled with anger, even though he had a huge smile on his face. Okay. So maybe Tony didn't _think_ and actually _said_. It's not like it was his fault! He hadn't slept very well the past week considering the science fair was coming up soon. He had to show all the people at this school up, make them see the awesome that was was Tony Stark.

"Yes, well, running back to him with your tail wagging whenever you find someone who's late _does._" He said, matter-of-factly, his eyebrows raised in an almost sassy way. Coulson tried to hide his annoyance, but the redness that appeared on his cheeks gave him away. He lifted up his book, which turned out to be a ledger full of different notes, tickets and schedules, and took out a red memo pad that Tony recognized instantly. He leaned forward casually, batting his eyelashes at the rule abider. "...has anyone told you how stunning you look today?" Coulson didn't even glance up from the ticket he was scribbling out. "Flattery doesn't work on me, Stark. Especially coming from you. I'd rather go on a date with my grandmother."

_Who's to say you already haven't?_ Coulson looked up from the memo, full-on glaring. Tony mentally kicked himself for thinking out loud again, as a red slip was shoved at his chest. He haphazardly caught it mid-air as it had already begun drifting to the floor. "Lunch detention. I'm sure you have the room number memorized by now." The hall monitor gave a broad, malice-laced smile and turned to walk back towards the principal's office. Tony watched him go, shaking his head. _Maybe if I find that kid a boner-buddy he'll loosen up for once in his life._ His eyes drifted down to the teen's retreating ass. _Not bad. _As if the other teenager could somehow sense Tony staring, he raised his arm up to flip him off over his shoulder.

* * *

"What a pleasure for you to join us, Tony!" A tall, broad-shouldered man grinned as he ushered the teenager inside. Tony's classmates collectively rolled their eyes. Their teacher, Obadiah Stane, certainly favored the boy over anyone else. He never reprimanded Tony for being late (which happened nearly every single day) and always praised him as if he were some sort of genius. Well. Technically, Tony _was_ a genius, but none of the other teachers made it so... _obvious_. As Tony walked towards his seat, someone stuck out their foot into the aisle. The brunette attempted to grab onto a desk as he fell, but the other teens scooted their desks away from him at the same time. Everyone burst into laughter as he hit the floor, face-first.

"Loose a few IQ points, Boy Wonder?" The perpetrator grinned. "Now maybe you'll be in league with the rest of us." Tony looked up glaring, his glasses askew.

"I'd have to go full retard to be in your _league_." The other boy stood from his chair, as if he were going to beat the living crap out of Tony right then and there, but Stane had already grabbed the boy by the arm. He himself looked furious, as though _he_ were suddenly going to give the punk a taste of his own medicine. It took him a moment to regain his composure. "Wilson. Principal's office. Now."

The teen shrugged out of Stane's hold and brushed off the spot where the man's hand had been. "Okay, okay. No need to get your laced panties in a bunch." He winked towards his classmates and whispered loudly, "I totally saw them when he bent over once," then left the classroom. Tony had already pushed himself up and trudged over to his desk. He rubbed at his forehead. Searing headache and it wasn't even noon yet.

* * *

"Hey, Pep. I noticed you weren't in Economics today. Did you finally get tired of me and transfer schools?" Tony leaned against his locker, his cellphone held between his ear and shoulder. The girl on the other end of the call sighed.

"Really, Tony? I told you, what, three times this week that I would be out for most of today? I had to go to the dentist. I'll be back during 6th period."

Tony rolled his eyes and sighed exaggeratedly. "Who the hell comes to school for one class? Normal people would just take the whole day off. Be normal, Pepper."

"I'm sorry not everyone can be as smart as you, Tony. Some of us have to actually pay attention in class and do homework."

"HEY. I pay attention in class! How else would I be able to correct the teachers when they make mistakes?" Tony furrowed his brow and pouted, as if Pepper would know just by the tone of his voice.

"I'll see you 6th period, Tony. Have a good lunch." She hung up. Tony closed his locker, only to jump when he saw Coulson standing a foot away from him.

"You're ten minutes late to detention, Stark." He crossed his arms over his chest and gave that creepy smile again. "Don't make me keep you after school." Tony raised an eyebrow at him and shook his head.

"Jesus, you're anal retentive. Did you know you have a delusion where you think I actually give a shit?" Tony took the detention slip out of his pocket and walked past him, purposely shoving the other teen out of the way with his shoulder. He didn't look back to see his reaction.

* * *

"Uggghhhhh. Why can't this day just end already?" Tony lumbered into his 6th period Physics class, dragging his feet dramatically as if he had lost the will to live. He looked up over the frames of his glasses to see Pepper and his other lab partner, Bruce Banner, sitting at their group table. Upon sitting down, he crossed his arms on the table and buried his face. A hand patted his back reassuringly. "There, there, Tony." It was Pepper. "One day your prince will come." Tony didn't even know what she was talking about, but then again, he didn't really care. His head was pounding. He really needed to... to... what was it again? Something important. Something he was missing all the time... Oh yeah. Sleep. He needed to sleep more.

"Um." Bruce began, "I don't want to interrupt your heartfelt moment or anything, but did you read the chapter last night, Tony?" Tony peeked an eye out from his arm fortress. Bruce was smiling awkwardly, as usual. Ever since he got braces, he had noticeably stopped smiling with his teeth showing. Tony thought it was ridiculous, really, how low Bruce's self-esteem always seemed to be. It's not like the kid was unattractive. His wide nose fit the broad frame of his face perfectly. His hair fell in umber tresses that shone beautifully in the right light. Even his dark eyes were gorgeous, although they were diminished by his glasses, in the same manner Tony's were. Really, if he wanted to, he could turn a few heads if he gave himself a makeover or something.

"No. Sorry. I forgot. Was working on a project." He replied, as Bruce stood up to go get the lab supplies. Bruce called back, "It's alright. I took extensive notes just in case you needed to borrow them. They're in my notebook if you want to start copying." Tony sat up an heard his back crack.

Pepper stifled a giggle. "Not even out of high school and already an old man." Tony gave her a mock laugh before he began rummaging through Bruce's backpack. Good lord, he had a shit ton of notebooks. Tony decided to pick a random one and flipped it open. For a moment, he stared at the page he had opened up to, before laughing. As Bruce walked over, he saw that Tony had his purple notebook and suddenly freaked out. "What are you doing? Do you have no sense of privacy?" He snatched it out of Tony's hand, horrified. Pepper looked at Bruce, curious.

"You told me to grab your notes, I didn't think I'd find your _diary._" Tony was still laughing.

"I thought you would grab the notebook labeled 'Physics.' I label them for a _reason._" He sat down in his chair, gripping the purple notebook like it was going to explode if he let go. "And it's not my diary. ...Not really."

"Oh come on, Banner." Tony wiped a tear from his eye as he calmed down. "You had the majority of the class drawn as cute little cartoons. All chubby and stuff."

"What? No fair, I wanna see." Pepper leaned towards Bruce, eying the notebook. He clutched it to his chest. She smiled at him. "If it's not your diary, then you shouldn't be afraid to show us. It's not like either of us are very good at drawing. We won't laugh at you. Right, Tony?" she said, as she kicked the giggling buffoon.

"Okay, okay, I promise." He bit his lip to stop. Bruce thought it over for a moment, before he sat the notebook down and opened it back to the page. There were tons of tiny doodles of people he knew.

"I, um. I like to correlate science with people sometimes, you know? I just can't help but make the connections in my head sometimes... In this case, it's astronomy." He swallowed nervously. "Um. For instance, here," he pointed to a drawing of two long-haired boys floating around a dot that was between them. "that's Thor and Loki. They're Binary Stars because no matter what they do or where they go, they always seem to still revolve around each other." He pointed at another drawing, this time of a boy who seemed to be vibrating in place. "That's Wade Wilson. He's a Quasar because he always seems to be bursting with intense energy."

"Is that Tony?" Pepper said, pointing at one of the doodles. Tony leaned in excitedly at the aspect of himself in stellar form. "He's a white dwarf. How come?" Both she and Tony looked at Bruce in unison. Bruce's face quickly turned red and he gaped at the air like a fish, before blurting out, "It's because he's white and short."

Tony stared at Bruce, his face blank for a good thirty seconds before he became comically enraged. "WHAT. Not only is that racist, Banner, but incredibly hurtful! You know, great people have been my height in history. I can't think of any right now, but they'll come to me, and oh, I will _bitch _to you about it, so help me-" Tony stopped at the sound of Pepper's hysterical laughter. He puffed up more. "Fine, you guys can giggle all you want, I'm going to find different lab partners for today." Tony walked off to a different table, his nose in the air as though he were in the 18th century and someone had just called his mother a ladybird.

Pepper grinned at Bruce. "So, what's the real reason you made him a white dwarf?"

Bruce looked hesitant at first, but once he thought about it, he knew he could trust Pepper more than anyone else. He spoke while looking at his drawing, a faint smile on his lips. "...it's because someday in the future he's going to go supernova." Bruce glanced up to see Tony making wild gestures at the other group's experiment, while they all groaned. "He'll blind the world with his greatness, and all the other stars will be inexplicably attracted to him." His eyes flickered back to meet Pepper's for a moment before he looked back at his notebook. "It will be overwhelming."

* * *

When the final bell rang, Tony nearly cried in joy. Finally, this day of terror had come to an end. He walked up to Pepper, grinning. "I'm in such a good mood, I've decided to forgive you." Before Pepper could give him any sort of sarcastic reply, he continued, "Hey, do you want to catch a movie tonight? My treat. We can go to the IMAX and see the new superhero flick that's playing." The redhead was glaring fiercely at him. He lifted his hands up in defense. "...or we could see Sex and the City 4 so you _don't _want to kill me. We could even dress up as the characters! Dibs on Samantha."

"Tony. You promised me that you'd go to the home game tonight, remember?"

"...the football game? That doesn't sound like something I'd ever even talk about, let alone promise. Now. You can go as Carrie if you want, I will totally buy you a blonde wig- owwww." He winced as she pinched him on the arm.

"Two days ago, you promised to go with me if I covered for you when you didn't come to class. Remember? The day you were a zombie from lack of sleep and woke up in a urinal?"

Tony grimaced. "Oh, right. Yes. Well. I lied." He took his car keys out of his pants pocket and gave her a determined look. "And there's no way you can talk me into going."

* * *

Tony grumbled as he hugged his jacket closer to himself. How the hell did he get talked into coming here? Social gatherings were _not_ his bag of chips, e_specially_ ones that involved all the idiots from school sitting around watching bigger idiots give each other brain damage for fun. He was also pretty sure that half the people here were making out under the bleachers anyway, and what the hell, man. If he couldn't get any, he sure as hell didn't want to be watching people that _were_. It wouldn't take more than a fake yawn to dump his forty-two ounce soda onto the ones right under him-

"OW." Pepper had stomped on his foot with her own. He gave her a pout that seemed to beg for her to let him have some fun.

"You don't want to get stuffed in a locker again, do you? I thought you'd be embarrassed enough that the fire dept had to come cut you out in front of everyone." Oh god. She had her arms folded over her chest. How the hell did she manage to look so menacing like that? Tony admitted defeat and looked back to the game like a good teenage boy. Or at least, he would have, if the football hadn't hit him in the face at that exact moment, sending him falling backwards into the groove between bleacher risings.

The student body erupted with laughter. Pepper reached down to help him up, a horrified look on her face.

"Oh my god, Tony, are you okay?" She sat him up straight and began rummaging through her bag for something to stop his nosebleed. Tony tilted his head back to stop the blood flow. He glared at the night sky, trying to recall the events that had lead him to this. Quite suddenly, his view was blocked by a nervous-looking blonde, his face hovering no more than an inch away from Tony's. The brunette felt strong hands grip his biceps in what seemed to be concern.

"Oh my gosh. Are you alright? I am so sorry." The boy's face was flush with embarrassment. Tony just stared. He wasn't sure he had ever seen eyes that were such a startling blue before.

"Steve, it's alright. You didn't mean to hit him." Pepper said, finally handing Tony some tissue paper. The boy took a step back to allow Tony some room. He took the tissue from his friend and brought it up to his nose. He knew he should have felt utterly embarrassed, but he couldn't stop staring. His eyes traced over Steve's strong jawline, following it to his neck, then down to his athletic gear.

"Is he okay?" Steve asked, looking incredibly worried. Pepper saw how Tony was oggling the guy and had to restrain herself from kicking him.

"ROGERS!" Steve stiffened when he heard the scream of their large, mean-looking coach. He bent over next to Tony to grab the football, his arm grazing the other teen's. Tony's eye twitched and he leaned forward a bit, as if he were going to look at Steve's ass before he felt Pepper tug on his ear hard.

"Once again, I'm really sorry." he bowed his head nervously, before turning to head back to the field. Tony looked as though he were about to pass out. Pepper was fairly certain it wasn't from the blood loss.

"Wait a second." Tony bristled. "Did that coach just say Rogers? Steve Rogers? Wasn't that kid a literal flagpole last year? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" Pepper rubbed at her temples as Tony went on to rant about how people can't 'gain that many hot points' over one Summer break. It was going to be a long night.

**Author's Notes:**

Written for mandylasers on Tumblr. B]

I'm not going to put a pairing list here because it is more fun to guess who will be paired with who.*evil laughter.*

To the people reading my other Avengers fanfic, _Between Breaths_: YES, I am still writing that one. I tend to write whatever comes to my mind, and this was floating around in it poking at me. So don't worry, I will update that one soon!


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